Dahna Megami Tanjou is one of those Genesis/Mega Drive hidden gems that never got enough love outside Japan. You play as Dahna, this young warrior with wild pink hair who starts off kinda weak—like, the first enemies nearly wreck you—but once you figure out her magic system, she turns into an absolute beast.

The sprites are chunky and colorful in that classic 16-bit way, and the music? Total bangers. There’s this one forest stage with a synth track that’s been stuck in my head since 1994. Gameplay’s a mix of hack-and-slash and light RPG elements—you’re constantly swapping between melee attacks and spells, which keeps fights from getting stale.

Fair warning though: the difficulty spikes hard around the third boss. I must’ve died twenty times before realizing you gotta bait his fire breath attack just right. Still, there’s something satisfying about mastering Dahna’s moveset and shredding through later levels like a magical chainsaw. If you dig obscure action-RPGs with personality, this one’s worth dusting off.